Different Ways to Clean Up Oil Spills

As the ever growing amount of barrels of oil being spewed by the deep sea BP oil ring, what are the most common ways to clean up an oil spill?

Many
diverse and unusual practices have been used on shore for decades on oil clean ups
such as on site oil spill burning, chemicals added and straw bales used. The
removal of the top layer of contaminated sand taken to a quarry and washed and
pressure washing beach boulders and rocks close to the final cleaning stage.

The
use of human hair turned into mats, and even feathers have been used at times for
oil spill cleanup. US coastal environment groups keep absorbent mats and
containment booms in case of an oil spill to protect their area.

In the
case with off-shore rigs out in the open sea other methods can be used to
reduce drastically the disasters it can provoke before winds and currents carry
the oil spill on to coastlines!

Burning the Oil Spill at the Source

In
very specific conditions, oil spills are every now and then burned away, but it's
used most often as a last-minute effort. On the site burning of oil was firstly
used in this BP oil spill. The burning of oil can have a negative impact on ocean
life.

Oil Containment Booms

The
first line of action when an oil spill occurs is to use a floating barrier
known as a containment boom. They come in many different shapes, sizes and colors but mostly look like long floating sausages that have
about a foot or more of skirt under water and these imbedded with weights for stabilization
and increased containment capacity in case of bigger swells and winds. This
keep the oil from dispersing further out into the sea until it can be removed.

Sea
conditions are hard to forecast and containment booms are used in light and
rather calm sea conditions. In the case where there is a storm brewing in the
area this method can come out to be rather useless, as oil floats, heavy swells
and winds would carry a great part of the oil spill over the boom, dispersing
it even more!

Natural Oil Spill Cleanup Products

As the
larger volume of the oil spill has been collected, natural absorbents (commonly refereed to as sorbents) are added
to the surface of the ocean. Absorbents that attract oil and repel water are
the ones that are most sought. A company in the US manufactures absorbent mats
out of donated hair for cleaning up oil spills. Also other products used these
past decades are, sawdust, straw, hay, sheep's wool, corn cobs, peat moss and feathers.

Removing Oil with Dispersing Agents

Dispersing
chemicals that are used to remove oil from the sea are always a concern for
many. When added to the oil spill some of these products provoke a progressive
clumping of oil for easier collection, others break up the molecular structure
and some ends up slowly sinking to the sea bed! Some of these chemicals are quite
toxic and various groups claim that these chemicals will soon be in our food
chain!

Removing Oil with Biologic Agents

Biologically
manufactured agents that "naturally digest" oil in the sea are enzymes
and microorganisms that “eat” oil used in techniques like bio augmentation and
biostimulation. A number of these methods result in the oil bonding with another
product and then falling to the sea bed as well where the damage may be far
greater and again provoke a negative impact on flora and fauna and
consequentially on the quality of sea foods we consume.

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